Rila (ship, 1941)
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The Rila (Bulgarian Рила ) was a Bulgarian cargo ship built in 1941 . In 1941 she was taken over by the Kriegsmarine , nationalized in 1948 and sailed for the Navigation Maritime Bulgarian shipping company . The last time it was an Atija floating workshop from 1962 , it sank in the port of Varna in 1991 and was only broken up in 2010.
Technical specifications
The ship was to order the small shipping company Societe Navigation Rila from Burgas on the Varna shipyard (later Georgi Dimitrov shipyard since 2004 Bulyard ) in 1940 under the hull number 11 to set keel . The launch took place on April 10, 1941, when the ship was named Rila . In Bulgaria, Rila is both a city, a river and a mountain range in the southwest of the country. The new building was the largest steel ship that had been built in Bulgaria until then.
The length of the ship was 32.00 meters, it was 6.80 meters wide and had a draft of 1.90 meters. It was measured with 194 GRT or 93 NRT and had a load capacity of around 250 tons. The drive consisted of a diesel engine with an output of 250 hp . This acted on a screw , the ship reached a speed of 9.0 knots . The crew consisted of 11 men, in the Navy of 30 officers and men. In the Kriegsmarine, the ship was armed with an 8.8 cm gun, two 3.7 cm flak and two 2.0 cm flak. In March 1944 the main gun was exchanged for a smaller one with a caliber of 1.5 cm.
history
From cargo ship to submarine hunter of the Kriegsmarine
After the shipyard was handed over, the shipping company is said to have used the Rila in the Black Sea in 1941 . In autumn 1941 the Germans, like almost all Bulgarian ships, took over the Rila and had it converted into a submarine trap for the Navy . The small freighter received a concealed 8.8 cm gun, anti-aircraft armament and the designation Schiff 19 . The ship was primarily entrusted with escort and security tasks. It was first attacked off Sulina when the Soviet submarine M-35 fired at Ship 19 on October 27, but missed it. During supply trips between Sevastopol and Constana in 1943, the ship secured the transport traffic. In September 1943 the ship was classified as U-Bootjäger UJ 117 and assigned to the 1st U-Bootjagdflotille formed in June 1943. One month later, on October 28, 1943, UJ 117 sank the Soviet submarine A-3 near Eupatoria .
Of the tasks carried out for 1944, UJ 117 includes a submarine hunt at the beginning of January southwest of Eupatoria and a mining company with the marine ferries F 570, F 572, F 445, F 447, F 568, F 571 from July 21, 1944 call. A few months later, on August 23, 1944, the coup d'état took place in Romania , whereupon the German troops had to withdraw from the country. When the German bases were evacuated, the crew sank their ship on August 25, 1944 in Constana.
From the cargo ship Rila to the workshop ship Atija
After the Germans withdrew, the ship was lifted by the Soviet military command and returned to the previous owner in Varna in 1945. The ship, again called Rila , initially resumed operations on the Bulgarian coast.
In 1948, like all ships with more than 40 GRT , the Rila was nationalized by private and cooperative shipping companies and the Societé Commerciale Bulgare de Navigation à Vapeur and merged into the state shipping company Navigation Maritime Bulgare (Navibulgar). Besides the Dobrudja (built in 1912, 42 meters long, 400 tons load capacity) the Rila was the only steel ship from private ownership. In the following years, the Rila was one of the first Bulgarian ships to sail into the Mediterranean and the Middle East: The first voyage led from Burgas to Brindisi and Durrës in Albania . Between August 29, 1947 and March 18, 1948, it transported 22 Jewish emigrants to Palestine . After Israel declared independence on May 18, 1948, other ships of the shipping company took over the transport of Jewish emigrants. During the voyages into the Mediterranean, the ship and the crew were observed by the American secret service - for example in March 1951 in Istanbul.
In 1962 the Rila was removed from the shipping company's fleet list, converted into a floating workshop and anchored at the Georgi Dimitrov shipyard in Varna. A year earlier, the shipping company in Great Britain had bought a used cargo ship, which was now named Rila . Instead, the old ship was given the name Atija. After the ship was finally decommissioned in 1986, there were plans to transfer the former Rila to the Naval Museum, but this was never realized. During a storm in 1991, the ship sank in port and was not lifted and scrapped until 2010.
literature
- Chronicle of the shipping company "Navigation Maritime Bulgare" , Navibulgar news December 2012 – January 2013 , ISSN 1313-8944 ( online version as PDF )
- Erich Gröner , Dieter Jung, Martin Maass: The German warships 1815-1945, Volume 8/2: Outpost boats, auxiliary minesweepers, coastal protection associations (part 2), small combat associations, dinghies . Bernard & Graefe Verlag, Bonn 1993, ISBN 3-7637-4807-5 .
- Jürgen Rohwer , Gerhard Hümmelchen : Chronik des Seekrieges 1939–1945 , edited by the working group for military research and by the library for contemporary history , Manfred Pawlak Verlagsgesellschaft, Herrsching o. J. [1968], ISBN 3-88199-0097 , extended online version .
Web links
- History of the Rila at morskivestnik.com (with photos, Bulgarian), accessed April 29, 2020
- Report on the lifting of the ship at varna24.bg (with photo, Bulgarian), accessed on April 30, 2020
Individual evidence
- ↑ Gröner, p. 538
- ↑ Bulgarian cargo ship Rila at warshipsresearch.blogspot.com
- ↑ a b Report on the lifting of the ship at varna24.bg
- ↑ Chronicle of the Naval War: October 18-27, 1941 Black Sea
- ^ Chronicle of the naval war: June 1–29, 1943 Black Sea
- ↑ Chronicle of the Naval War: October 15 – November 9, 1943 Black Sea
- ↑ Chronicle of the Naval War: January 5–30, 1944 Black Sea
- ↑ Marinefährprahm F 568 at historisches-marinearchiv.de
- ↑ On the self-sinking of German ships in the Black Sea in August 1944 in forum-marinearchiv.de
- ↑ a b History of the Rila on morskivestnik.com
- ^ Chronicle of the shipping company "Navigation Maritime Bulgare" ; P. 23
- ↑ cf. CIA report of March 21, 1953
- ^ Chronicle of the shipping company "Navigation Maritime Bulgare" ; P. 27
- ↑ Rockwood at tynebuiltships.co.uk